+ Kyle Okposo’s return. There may have been a one game lapse between the healthy scratches and their desired effect, but he was excellent last night.

– Rick DiPietro continuing to make passes up the middle and giving up a couple bad goals.

+/- The Islanders get an ‘E’ for effort, but there are no points for that.

– The Islanders have lost 13 of their last 15 games. Cliches aside, this streak has now reached ‘last year’ proportions.

+ Michael Grabner continues to be someone whose effort you don’t have to worry about.

+ Micheal Haley dropping the gloves then being smart enough to pick them up when needed.

– Haley’s interference penalty in the first period was a ghost of a call.

– The Islanders inability to finish games. Again, they had a nice lead and a nice effort but are unable to shut the door.

– To continue on that point, their inability to capitalize on a power play in OT. You can discredit DiPietro for giving up the winning goal but the Islanders had their chance to win this game.

And for the record, PA Parenteau’s hit was as clean as they come.

#1-800-BIG-CUBANO
After last night’s game, the Islanders returned Anders Nilsson to Bridgeport and activated Al Montoya from injured reserve. Montoya will get one of the starts against the Devils this weekend. With Rick DiPietro struggling and Evgeni Nabokov injured, this will be Montoya’s best shot to establish himself as the starter. He’s sat behind Henrik Lundqvist at the Garden and Ilya Bryzgalov in Phoenix and now, finally, he’s going to get good look to prove last season wasn’t a fluke. I’m sure he’s acutely aware of the situation. Let’s see what he can do with it.

SOUND TIGERS THIRD
The Sound Tigers will unveil their third jersey tomorrow when they play the CT Whale at 7pm. I imagine there will be black on the jersey with a dash of black.